Granny Apples is a great and compact early game which teaches kids how to do simple addition while they're having fun. What more could a parent want?

The game comes with 8 wooden apple halves, which, on the "inside", have either a picture of an apple cross-section (as you'd expect) or a picture of a worm, a pie, a bird or Granny. One player rolls the 8 apples like dice, and each player must count the apples as quickly as possible. The first one to shout out the correct answer wins the round and some small apple tokens for their collection.

Each apple that lands face down counts as one apple. An apple that lands face-up with the picture of the cross-section counts as a half-apple. If the apple with the pie shows face-up, players must subtract two apples from the total. If the apple with the worm shows face-up, players must subtract one apple from the total UNLESS the apple with the bird shows face-up, in which case they cancel each other out. If Granny's face shows face-up, one apple token gets put into her basket.

So, say the player rolls the apples. 5 apples are face-down, 1 is face-up with a cross-section showing, 1 is face-up with the worm showing, 1 is face-up with the pie showing. The score for this roll is 2 and a half. The first player to shout it wins 2 and a half apple tokens. Throughout the game, because of the Granny face apple, Granny's "basket" will slowly fill up. When her basket contains twelve apples, the player with the most apples wins. This is a tremendously fun game that teaches kids addition, subtraction and even basic fractions (halves) all while having fun! What's not to love?